A standard creel has a frame provided with a plurality of vertical rows of holders each adapted to hold a respective bobbin comprised of a tubular core and a mass of filament—yarn or thread—wound on the core. A filament is pulled from each bobbin and guided through a respective eye, whence it passes to a warp or weft system of a loom or the like. A standard creel can hold hundreds and even thousands of bobbins, thus space requirement is a problem. Additionally, conventional creel design requires that the tufting machine be placed out of operation during the times an operator is required to change the bobbins on the creel in order to change yarns.
Unfortunately, it is common for yarn to hang up as it is pulled off of the bobbin, which requires the operation to be shut down until the hang up is cleared. It is not uncommon to have inefficiencies because of such hang ups and shutdowns that can undesirably exceed 50%.